1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control system for a fan unit and a method of controlling a fan unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior art window fans are utilized to move stagnant air and cool internal building areas or rooms when air conditioning is not available. There are various known problems however, with prior art fan structures. First, as depicted in FIG. 15, prior art fans in many cases only pull air into a room and fail to exhaust air which causes poor circulation within the room and therefore hinders cooling. Alternatively, other fan systems pull air into a room and exhaust air in the same vertical plane or elevation. Therefore these fan systems fail to eliminate temperature stratification and reduce cooling effectiveness.
Another problem related to prior art fans is that fan units do no inhibit water passing through a housing and into a room when the fan is operated while a rain event is occurring. Consequently, during rain events, many window fans may not be operated without drawing water into the building.
Another problem with prior art window units is the limited control of fan operation and failure to be intelligently integrated with AC functionality. Most prior art units are manually operated, meaning a user must turn the fan on and off as desired. It would be desirable to use a window fan when specific outside air criteria are met, so that the air conditioning system in the building or home is not needed when the outside air is cool to and of a saturation or humidity level which would be comfortable to an occupant of the building or room.
Additionally, the use of the dew point and humidity controls would allow for increased comfort and energy savings by limiting the use of air conditioning in the building or home. Such limited use of natural resources is desirable.
It would be desirable to create a window fan unit which overcomes these and other deficiencies in order to decrease energy consumption, more efficiently cool interior areas of a building, commercial, residential or other, and improve occupant comfort while ultimately saving money on cooling by using outside air where applicable.